Central vacuum cleaning systems are well known and are to be found in domestic and commercial premises to provide a centralized cleaning regime based on the vacuum cleaner principle to minimize the carriage of conventional equipment from place to place. Naturally, there are available small portable vacuum cleaners operable independently of the central vacuum system, which may easily be transported manually from location to location within domestic or commercial premises, but generally their power is restricted by the need to afford portability.
It is normal in a central vacuum cleaning system, for example as deployed in a condominium, to site a few strategically placed connection stations, coupled in a circuit to a central vacuum generating unit, and to provide a flexible hose of not inconsiderable length for registration with one station enabling cleaning of a number of rooms and areas to be achieved with that one length of hose. The length of the hose makes laborious the task of vacuuming in view of the need to carry such an unwieldy and relatively heavy mass of hose between stations.
Various proposals to alleviate this problem have been made. For example, US Patent Application Publication No. US 2007/0256269 to Pagni discloses a location specific unit integral with the fabric of the building in which it is to be employed, namely within the wall structure. However, this proposal merely provides a vacuum system for each cleaning area, rather than a central vacuum system with a number of outlets throughout the building.
Another example of prior art is to be found in US Patent Application Publication No. US 2008/0092323 to Smith et al who describe a central vacuum cleaning system as such with wall valves in the various rooms of a building structure and one cabinet housing cleaning tools including a flexible hose connected into the central system through a wall valve within the cabinet, which again is mounted within a stud wall.
There are other systems which provide for a similar arrangement as in the Smith et al proposal but with a free-standing cabinet, for example in a kitchen, housing an appropriate suction tool on a hose connected permanently to an inlet of the central vacuum cleaning system. Removal of the tool from a specially designed docking station, incorporating a switching arrangement, activates the vacuuming mode with replacement of the tool causing deactivation. A disadvantage of such a system is it always requires the opening of a cabinet door before reaching the cleaning tool, and the door remains open during operation of the system, which might be highly cumbersome.
Although the prior art suggests the need to make central vacuum cleaning systems more location specific to facilitate the cleaning operation, a disadvantage of the thereof is the requirement to include the facility within the structure of the building serviced by the central vacuum cleaning system.
Accordingly, there is a need for an auxiliary vacuum device for use with a central vacuum cleaning system.